WASHINGTON - China and the United States have to manage their differences in a constructive way as the two countries' common interests and mutual needs always outweigh whatever differences they have, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has said.

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"To be fair, some of the differences will remain with us for many years to come. We have to recognize that there will always be differences between us because we are two different countries with very different historical heritages, different cultures, and different political and economic systems," said Cui in a recent interview with former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson on the podcast program "Straight Talk with Hank Paulson."

It is the expectation of the international community that China and the United States should work with each other, not against each other, on these global challenges. This is the larger common interest.

 Cui Tiankai, Chinese Ambassador to the United States

The conversation, held on Aug 28 and aired on Monday, covered topics including current China-US relations, bilateral economic and trade cooperation, global governance, and China's economy.

"But we have to manage the differences in a constructive way. We have to keep in mind that our common interests and mutual needs always outweigh whatever differences we have. We are faced with so many global challenges. Neither China nor the United States can handle them all by itself, whether the pandemic or climate change or natural disasters," he said.

"It is the expectation of the international community that China and the United States should work with each other, not against each other, on these global challenges. This is the larger common interest," he said.

"As for our differences, I have to be very frank that many issues, including those you just mentioned, such as the situation across the Taiwan Straits, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea, if we look at the map, they are either part of the Chinese territory or very close to China. None of them is close to the United States. Certainly none of them is part of the US territory," said the ambassador.

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"So for us, it's a matter of sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity. Sometimes we just don't believe why these issues should become issues between our two countries. They are internal issues for China," he said.

"As the Chinese nation strives to achieve modernization, we have to solve the issues concerning our sovereignty and territorial integrity in the process. They are our own affairs," the ambassador added.